Hasta La Gadget!

How many mobile platforms can you think of that integrate “with your home game console, like Xbox?” Unless we’re completely spacing something out, the answer is one: Windows Phone 7. We’d already figured the Thursday announcement that Sprint has been teasing this week on Twitter — and that little Arrive leak all but confirmed it anyhow — but if you needed any more evidence that the phone formerly known as the HTC 7 Pro would be formally announced in CDMA guise this week, here you have it. We’ll know more tomorrow, hopefully.

Latest Sprint teaser tweet all but confirms February 24th announcement is for Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Weary Epic 4G owners, wonder no more about your phone’s long-overdue update to Android 2.2, because the rumors were true: it’s nearly here. Sprint has thrown up a support page detailing the build EB13 upgrade that will kick off on February 21st, saying that all customers “should” have it by the 25th through a phased over-the-air rollout. Besides the usual Android 2.2 goodies, the update promises “GPS enhancements,” which is something that pretty much every Galaxy S owner around the world is always on the lookout for with every new firmware version. Of course, we’ll believe this all when it actually starts happening — but it’s a good sign.

Samsung Epic 4G officially signed up for Froyo starting February 21st originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint has had an on again / off again relationship with LTE for some time now, but it looks it may finally be nearing a commitment one way or the other. Speaking in a roundtable discussion at Mobile World Congress this week, Sprint’s Senior Vice President of Networks, Bob Azzi, said that the carrier would be studying the rate at which its customers migrate from EV-DO to mobile WiMAX over the next four to six months, and that it would evaluate the best way to use its existing spectrum before it reaches a firm decision on a possible switch to LTE. As we’ve heard previously, that switch would be a fairly straightforward one from a technical standpoint due to the carrier’s recent upgrades to its network, which allow it to upgrade its gear to LTE simply by swapping in a new baseband card and issuing a software patch.

Sprint evaluating switch to LTE over the next four to six months originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The decision to move to WiMAX instead of LTE will probably be second-guessed by pundits and investors for years to come, but regardless, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has emerged as one of the wireless industry’s great comeback kids now that he appears to be succeeding in his goal of turning the carrier’s tailspin right around. The latest victory comes in the form of Sprint’s fourth quarter 2010 results, which reveal its largest subscriber gain since the first and second quarters of 2006 — yes, 2006. Total adds were 1.1 million, though net postpaid adds were only 58,000, suggesting that prepaid services are the big push right now. Additionally, Sprint reported its lowest postpaid customer churn in the fourth quarter of any year in its history at 1.86 percent. On the downside, the company’s still technically in the red, reporting an operating loss of $139 million on revenues of $8.3 billion. Overall, Hesse says they’ve got “momentum” heading into the new year, anticipating net customer additions in 2011. Give us an EVO 4G 2, Dan, and we might just be willing to agree.

Sprint posts best customer gains in five years originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint wants you to believe that two screens are better than one. Its new Android-powered smartphone, the Echo, will feature two touchscreen surfaces in a hinged design.

Made by Japanese electronics manufacturer Kyocera, the phone’s dual 3.5-inch WVGA screens can be operated independent of one another or combine in “tablet mode” to add up to a single 4.7-inch integrated display (albeit one with a hinge in the middle).

The Echo’s highlights can be seen in the phone’s obvious multitasking potential. The phone can be operated like most other touchscreen smartphones in its single-screen mode, but in “Simul-task Mode” users can run separate apps on each screen — like, say, open a text on the upper screen while reading an email on the lower one. Tablet mode, says Sprint, works well for viewing videos and lists across a larger surface area. However, early reports from other blogs suggest that there are significant limitations to the Echo’s multitasking capabilities.

The phone will run on Sprint’s 3G network and comes with Wi-Fi hotspot capability, with support for up to five separate devices. Under the hood, the Echo is running on a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 1 GB of RAM, and its 5-megapixel camera is capable of 720p HD video capture. It will run on version 2.2 (Froyo) of Google’s Android operating system.

There are some shortcomings. The Echo doesn’t run on the company’s 4G WiMax spectrum, which Sprint been promoting in its 2011 4G smartphone offerings, beginning with HTC’s Evo Shift and the Evo 4G in January. The company recently announced its $10 premium data-plan fee for all new 3G and 4G phones activated after Jan. 30.

It also lacks a dual-core processor. Whether its 1-GHz Snapdragon is beefy enough to handle the dual-screen multitasking of the phone remains to be seen.

Also still unknown is the phone’s battery life, although here’s a hint: Sprint is bundling it with a spare 1,370 mAh battery and a “low-profile” charging cradle that can also act as an external battery pack. In other words, you’re probably going to need that extra juice.

The Echo will cost $200 with a two-year Sprint service agreement (after a $100 mail-in rebate, mind you), and will be released in the spring.

Photo: Kyocera Echo (Sprint)

See Also:

• Sprint 3G Smartphone Data Plans Go Up $10, Same as 4G
• Sprint Offers “Simply Everything” For $100
• Samsung Launches 4G Phone on Sprint
• HTC Evo 4G is a Blockbuster for Sprint
• Why Windows Phone 7 Will Make Android Look Chaotic
• Google Launches Android Market Web Store, Improves Payment System …
• What We Know About Honeycomb, the Android for Tablets